Gimmi Bruni has delighted his new for 2006 team Trident Racing by taking pole position for his home race in Imola with a time of 1:32.691.

Bruni's times improved throughout the session, starting strongly and dropping his times as the laps rolled out before finally setting the quickest lap with eight minutes remaining, ahead of Jose Maria Lopez and Lewis Hamilton.

With temperatures climbing and the track rubbered in from two Formula One sessions, conditions were excellent for a thrilling qualifying shootout. No one wasted any time getting on track as soon as the green light came on, and the grid was led out by Lucas di Grassi.

Hamilton set the early pace with a time of 1:33.386, ahead of his teammate Alex Premat. The ART Grand Prix drivers were running nose to tail for the opening laps, with the drivers swapping positions on track and helping each other by providing a tow.

Bruni and Lopez were right with them on the timesheets however, with the latter eventually taking the top spot in the middle of the session. Behind them Hiroki Yoshimoto looked very strong, pushing his BCN team further and further up the timesheets.

Championship leader Nelson Piquet Jr appeared to be struggling with his car, seemingly unable to repeat this morning's performance. He eventually set the sixth best time, but was visibly unhappy as he got out of his car at the end of the session.

With the pressure of qualifying on, all the drivers held their cars underneath them for most of the session, but with five minutes to go the stress levels were ramping up – Ferdinando Monfardini was unable to hold his line through Ravazza and was off through the gravel and hit the barreiers hard to end his session.

Back at the front Lopez was pulling out all stops to take pole, and with four minutes to go he had the fastest times for the first two sectors and looked to have cracked it. But he couldn't hold on in sector three, and next time around he spun at the exit to Acqua Minerale and stalled on the racing line, effectively bringing a halt to the session.

The times showed how close the drivers are to each other – the top ten places were covered by just one second, with two seconds covering 22 drivers, highlighting the promise of a thrilling race one tomorrow afternoon.